From the desk of:
Douglas L. Brining
Assistant VP Animal Programs

Dear PI and Research Teams,   

     Yesterday an email was sent out to all animal users with the following recommendations:

• Please begin working with your corresponding facility supervisor today to identify rodent colonies that are not commercially available or replaceable.  If you have unique strains of rodents that have not been previously cryopreserved either by a commercial entity or here at UTMB, please contact Dr. Maki Wakamiya via email at mawakami@utmb.edu for recommendations on how to best proceed.

• All incoming animal orders have been stopped at this time with the exception of new research projects into COVID-19 with UTMB leadership approval.

    I would like to provide some clarification and guidance on these two points.  The intention of the first bullet is to identify cages of genetically distinct lines of rodents that are unique or truly difficult to replace.  We had a few PIs or team members identifying cages that are important from study perspective.  While we understand that all of these animals are important, we are attempting to identify irreplaceable animal populations.  The fact that the cage is not identified with a sticker does not indicate that we are planning to eliminate those cages now from the colonies so please do not have that concern.

  We are still receiving some animal orders to the ARC animal order desk.  Please add a note in the comments section if these animals are intended for COVID-19 projects.  This will help us separate these and allow them to be passed along to leadership for approval.  

  Thank you all for the efforts and your offers to help if needed.  Please contact the ARC if any part of this message is unclear.